Modern Vespa

Hello people, just found this forum, wish i had earlier! Ihave pretty much finished a complete strip and rebuild of a friends 1979 ET3, but have got a problem. The clutch lever is so stiff i have broken one lever and 2 cables! it has got slightly better but is still stiff and does not fully disengage. Any ideas what is wrong? i'm thinking stuck clutch plates but don't know and am slightly reluctant to start taking the engine to bits. Cheers

there are others wisdom to follow i'm sure

welcome to the house of MV

all you can do aside from a tear down of clutch is follow the trail from headset to clutch arm and see if you are binding or cathing somewhere

on the small frame there is a cable guide underneath the motor

mine was binding there but not to the extent of yours

when you grab the clutch arm can you move it(disengage) at all


pics are good too

get more attention around here with scooter porn

hello jimmy, totally forgot to take any photos, might get some up next week. did try different routings of the cable and checked that it moved freely when not connected to the clutch arm. i can move the arm with pliers but it is stiff, so think the problem lies inside the clutch release mechanism. is this buried inside the engine? lots of questions i know, but with regard to vespas i'm a complete novice. all and any advice greatly receieved, cheers

the smallframe is cool

you take the carb off

remove the wheel and shock bolt and the friggin motor drops down right in front of you

easy breezy to work on clutch and remove head and cylinder if you want/

i was told the clutch is buried in the engine casing? is this not the case then?

http://www.smallframes.com/

thanks jimmy, thats a useful page. got new clutch plates fitted now, just fitted three instead of the four that were in there and problem solved! i can now move the clutch lever with one hand and it doesn't slip either. never seen such black oil come out of an engine before though....

run it a few miles and change the oil again

good for the clutch to have some fresh spu in there

[quote="jimmyb865"]run it a few miles and change the oil again

good for the clutch to have some fresh spu in there[/quote

agreed. take the bike out and ride it for a while. take out the oil screw (while it is still hot) and let it drain overnight. the most crap comes out that way. put in some non detergent SAE 30 and you are good to go. buy lots of extra fibre washers for the oil screws on your next parts order.